House Grosse Reichenstrasse 37
The house at Große Reichenstraße 37 (also Große Reichenstraße 35/37, 37/39 or 35-39) was a residential and commercial building in the area of Hamburg's old town , which was one of the Hamburg town houses characteristic of the middle of the 18th century . The merchant's house was built on Große Reichenstrasse in 1742 and demolished in 1908 with the facade being salvaged and stored. The Zurich House is in its place today .
The remaining parts of the facade are now part of the Hamburg Museum . The sandstone portal is on display today , as an architectural fragment on an outer wall of the museum located in the former Hamburg ramparts . A corresponding cartouche with the initials of a previous owner is built into the portal of the former neighboring house, Grosse Reichenstrasse 49 (demolished in 1890), which has also been preserved and is set up free-standing in the ramparts near the museum.
facade
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Portal_of_the_former_house_in_Gr_Reicherstrasse_37%2C_Hamburg.jpg/220px-Portal_of_the_former_house_in_Gr_Reicherstrasse_37%2C_Hamburg.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c6/Cartrige_of_the_former_house_in_Gr_Reicherstrasse_37%2C_Hamburg.jpg/220px-Cartrige_of_the_former_house_in_Gr_Reicherstrasse_37%2C_Hamburg.jpg)
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Portal_Gro%C3%9Fe_Reichenstra%C3%9Fe_49_%28rear_view%29.jpg/170px-Portal_Gro%C3%9Fe_Reichenstra%C3%9Fe_49_%28rear_view%29.jpg)
![World icon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Erioll_world.svg/15px-Erioll_world.svg.png)
The strictly structured facade was kept in the Rococo style. In terms of its facade structure and access, the house was clearly related to its somewhat more splendidly designed neighboring building, Grosse Reichenstrasse 29-33, dating from the period after 1713, which apparently served as a model: Both facades were characterized by a central axis that was strictly emphasized as a central projection accented in rhythm 2-1-2. There were also (later changed) side passages that required the floorboard to be raised.
The almost seven meter high sandstone portal was made by the sculptor Johann Andreas Schuldt. It was installed so low that the associated skylight did not belong to the mezzanine floor above the hall, as was otherwise customary at the time, but to the internal staircase. In this way, it incorporates a window on the upper floor into the architecture of the entrance in a characteristic way.
In contrast to the facade of the neighboring building, the sandstone used in the building at Große Reichenstrasse 37 varied, as was customary with the Hamburg construction method at the time, artfully with bricks. The windows stepped back a little from the wall surface, above them were flat brick arches. The generous gable was closed off at the sides by renaissance-like sandstone snails and crowned by a stone vase.
The house is somewhat reminiscent of the main pastorate at Jacobikirchhof, built by Nicolaus Dietrich Petersen between 1757 and 1759 .
Layout
The front building facing the street and the slim outbuilding behind it corresponded to the basic type of the Hamburg community center. The ground floor and hall floor rose above a three meter high base floor. The two wide passageways next to the portal led into the courtyard on the left and the storage rooms on the right. The mezzanine level extended over the first floor floor to the full depth of the house, so there were two low floorboards one above the other. There were offices on both sides of the entrance stairs and a large, deep room facing the courtyard. Both boards were at the same level as the wing of the adjoining building on the inner courtyard. This was followed by the warehouse, which led to the Gröningerstraßenfleet , which branched off from Nikolaifleet and has now disappeared under Willy-Brandt-Straße (formerly Ost-West-Straße).
history
The year of construction 1742 is evidenced by a year on the passage to the left of the portal. In 1745 Anna Catharina Behrmann, née Rothenburger, bought the house. She attached a cartridge with the crowned initials "RB" to the portal. The house had a “chosen and elaborate interior”.
The house was demolished in December 1908 as part of the renovation of the old town, although it was one of the best-preserved town houses in Hamburg that were characteristic of the middle of the 18th century. The building deputation carried out a proper demolition of the entire facade. A donation from the last owner, the municipal electricity works, brought the portal to the collection of the Museum of Hamburg History in 1909. The rest of the facade has also been preserved, but is not on display.
Today, on the site of the house is the Zurich House , named after the insurance company of the same name and built between 1989 and 1992 , an office building with a glass and brick facade. Its entrance is on Domstrasse; The entrance to the underground car park is on Grosse Reichenstrasse. The neighboring building (No. 29–33) gave way as early as 1900 to the Afrikahaus that still exists today (today No. 27).
literature
- Wilhelm Jesse , Gustav Schwantes , Hans Schröder : Guide through the Museum of Hamburg History . Alster-Verlag, Hamburg 1926, OCLC 248869609 , p. 6 .
- Wilhelm Melhop : Old Hamburg style of construction: brief historical development of the architectural styles in Hamburg, depicted on the secular building up to the resurrection of the city after the great fire of 1842, along with chronological-biographical notes . Boysen & Maasch, Hamburg 1908, OCLC 162607519 .
- Uwe Meyer-Brunswyck: Symbols in stone, a guide through the building jewelry collection . In: Museum for Hamburg History (Hrsg.): Hamburg portrait . No. 10 . Museum of Hamburg History, Hamburg 1987, DNB 880344385 .
- Wolfgang Rudhard: The community center in Hamburg . Wasmuth, Tübingen 1975, ISBN 3-8030-0023-8 , p. 62 f .
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 53 ° 32 '53.7 " N , 9 ° 59' 43" E